|Action||Material omissions from absentee ballots.|
|Comment Period||Ends 10/12/2011|
Absentee voting regulations & college student IDs
The point is to positively identify the voter, and not to prevent legal voters from casting their ballots because of minor oversights or nicknames instead of full names when overwhelming evidence makes it clear that the ballot is honestly cast.
If a voter substitutes a common nickname when all other data is consistent it would be unreasonable to reject his ballot. If the ballot is clearly from this election and postmark-dated consistently with a recent mailing, the fact that a year is absent from the ballot date, or even the whole date, is irrelevant given that it is clearly honestly intended to be a ballot cast for this election. To reject these ballots would be to overlook that humans can overlook details of instructions without negating their voice in elections when they are clearly valid.
College students should also be able to vote using their college IDs provided they have registered in the city where they are attempting to cast a ballot and are Virginia citizens.
* Nonregistered public user